


We Came Here to Take You Out

by MajorEnglishEsquire



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Movie Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 08:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2381714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajorEnglishEsquire/pseuds/MajorEnglishEsquire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha sits him down and shows it to him, just to make nice one day. And he deals with it, sits quiet and humors her because how <i><b>massively important</b></i> could a fucking monster movie end up being to Bucky?</p><p>But it is. And it is called <i>Pacific Rim</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Came Here to Take You Out

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the rights to these characters, setting, movies, comics, etc. No harm is intended.

Natasha sits him down and shows it to him, just to make nice one day. And he deals with it, sits quiet and humors her because how  _**massively important** _  could a fucking monster movie end up being to Bucky?

But it is. And it is called  _Pacific Rim_.

He's got his hand over his mouth for most the movie, absorbed, paying rapt attention. Mako is Steve in a way. Everything Bucky has come to worship, really. Someone so little, so tough, who can build and destroy whatever she needs to. Mako and her work and her dedication and what happened to her family are integral to how the Kaiju are stopped. She is stunning.

And there's Raleigh, at her side. His  _left arm is kinda shot_. He had something about him -- Yancy, his own brother, a piece of his life, this deep-rooted part of him -- ripped right out of his head. He has the opportunity to go up against the destroyers again.

These beasts so much like Hydra.  
Cut one down and more rise.

And, sure, Natasha has come to believe in their team. Even after SHIELD fell, even with Bucky crawling brokenly into their midst, she believes in their power together. That's why she's sticking to Steve and Sam and Tony and Pepper and keeping track of everyone, checking in with Coulson.

So, clearly her message had been "better together." How, yeah, you can operate on your own, and you can probably take down your enemies still, even at half-functionality, but you're better _together_.

And he smiles a little and nods, smirks at the last scene, the last comedic line, and they move on with their day.

He gets a tablet and takes it to bed with him and Jarvis tells him how to find the movie on it. He watches it again when everyone's sleeping. He sits through it from top to bottom, straight through the credits.

Their minds are joined. They fight these monsters, they win. They work together. Their _minds_ are joined.

Clint had sat next to Nat at dinner and jumped in on their review of the movie with enthusiasm. He likes the idea of a sword but recognizes the improbability of it. He still thinks Tony can modify Bucky's arm to raise the plates with razor edges when pressing a control to activate them.

He'd mumbled something about being interested in a rocket-powered punch, himself. But silently he'd only wondered if Tony had figured out, yet, how it was that Hydra got into his mind.

Bucky sits through the credits catching himself up in fantastic horrors: people getting back into his brain.  
And fantastic wonders: seeing into Steve's.

Seeing through Steve's eyes what it is he keeps seeing when he looks at the Winter Soldier and sees  _Bucky_. Smiles -- smiles through  _everything_ , and sees his  _friend_.

It's as much a violation to want to see into Steve's head as it is for anyone to see into his, though. And he shudders.

It's enough not to want anyone to make mention of the movie to Tony at all, not even in passing.

Drift compatibility, though.

The idea of drift compatibility sticks with him.

He wants to think he'd be compatible with Steve. Especially how they fight now, their bodies evenly matched in strength, power, skill.

If Romanova let anyone into her head, ever, that would be an honor in itself, wouldn't it?

But not an even match. She and Steve, he thinks, are both too smart for him. And he is learning to trust the others, but to trust them in his head? To trust them to see what he knows and what he remembers (and doesn't) and to have them trust him back?

 _Raleigh, listen to me--_  the words echo and fly away on the wind, just like Yancy, just like the drift in Raleigh's head, just like a snowy cliff and a plummet, staring up as Steve flies away from him and he falls to the ground--

_All I have to do is fall. Anyone can fall--_

He shoves the tablet away and sleeps. Wakes up too early, makes coffee, sneaks back into his room and watches it again.

Even the geeks. The damn lab geeks. The Germans are like Stark and Banner, arguing cheerfully and geeking out at each other over their science. Even _they_ would drift together.

Bucky will keep this reality. Where no one gets into his head. Shit, Stark sits alone in his suit. For all intents and purposes, he makes Jaegers and he controls them himself. No one ever need enter his head. Ever.

He stays in his room watching the movie well past breakfast time so they send Steve over to knock, tentative. Bucky's got earbuds in, though and, when he goes unanswered, Steve tries the door handle. Tries calling for him through the cracked-open door.

He pauses the movie and pulls off the headphones.

"Hey." Steve is so careful. Slow steps into the room, telegraphing every move.

Bucky scoots even further to the right on the massive bed they gave him. Sets his empty coffee mug aside and Steve catches sight of the tablet, paused on a monster spilling its blue guts.

"Sam showed me that one," he looks up to gauge Bucky. "You like it so far?"

He nods. Doesn't make mention that this is his third (alright, maybe fourth) watch, just hands Steve the left ear bud and stays squashed to his side of the bed while he climbs on.

They watch through the credits again. At the end, Steve elbows him on that left side, "What'cha say, Buck? You're about one-eighth Jaeger as it is," he smiles.

 _Jäger_ as in _hunter_. Bucky thinks on this for a moment, frowning down at his arm. One eighth robotic hunter. He supposes that's true.

"Hey," Steve says soft, "I didn't mean-"

"Do you think we're drift compatible?"

Steve hands the headphone back over and considers for a long moment, zoning out, looking away.

"I never really thought about the future. 'Till I got stuck in it," he semi-quotes, then looks up to Bucky, smiling again. "I never did have very good timing."

Oh, Steve.

"You know, I think you'll find those are my lines," Bucky sits straighter.

"Buck," he says, hesitating another moment. "If we're drift compatible, that means we share the load."

Despite the element of fantasy and fiction, It's warning and more. Steve knows, from how little he's been able to pry out of Bucky through gentle conversation, exactly how much Bucky values what he's keeping locked up inside himself. Everything he knows, everything that he was programmed to do, and every bit of the both of them that he doesn't want to admit he forgot--

Not  _FORGOT_. But what was taken from him. All that was taken from him.

It's hard for him to acknowledge that. And Steve knows he's not making it any easier being close, and looking at him like he's still his best friend. But the only other option is backing off and leaving Bucky alone.

If he chose it, he'd never have to be alone again. Steve would and the Avengers would and every minor and major member of the team would crowd around Bucky and fold him into their every task and every day if Bucky were okay with that. If it would make Bucky feel good. If it would make Bucky feel good, Steve would never move from his side.

_That's what Jaeger pilots do, share the neural load._

Bucky twists the headphone cord in his hands.

No question. Steve would do that for him. Would do that with him.

If he would share all that weighs heavy in him, all he's worried about revealing--

Steve's as strong as Mako. He'll help rebuild SHIELD from the bottom. He'll help rebuild Bucky, broke-ass Jaeger that he is. He'll stand up at the eleventh hour to fight. Right beside him.

Even the unpleasant things, if he ever had access to Bucky's head-- Bucky could decide to let him know these things. And stand on the strength of the both of them together, knowing the bad shit wouldn't bowl Steve over. That he's strong enough and good enough for the both of them.

"I think we are," he blinks back to focus on Steve. "I think we're drift compatible. You're my co-pilot."

Steve knows what he's saying here, knows everything he means. Steve knows because they really would be drift compatible. He knows simply because he knows how deeply Bucky would have to mean that to affirm it aloud. To finally acknowledge that Steve could step into his head and stand at his side and he wouldn't worry anymore about what he'd think of him.

They don't need the strange words from this high-tech, modern movie to share the sentiment. Bucky could keep quiet, like he has been, for months now. But it's important to say it. To finally speak.

Bucky can have that kind of faith in Steve. Can just give it up and hand it over and, as he leans to press his head to Steve's, can let the pain of the past fall away. Let what was ripped from him slip off in the drift where it will always be there if he needs it. But he can choose to trust his co-pilot, now.

Steve's hand drags up his arm, to curve over its messy joining at the shoulder and pull Bucky's body into his, smile into his hair.

Victory. 9:26 Tuesday morning, middle of the mattress.  
The breach is sealed. Stop the clock.

**Author's Note:**

> ([x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUz45pBoBHk))


End file.
